A public hearing at Tuesday night’s Jefferson City Council meeting went over 2.5 hours about a proposed zoning change for a rental housing project.
The contentious hearing included about 15 people that asked questions, voiced concerns or spoke against the property being rezoned between North Maple Street and North Elm Street from light industrial to multi-family residential RM3 for 3,000-square foot of space per rental unit. Anna Folwell with KCG Companies proposed up to 50 rental units which would include one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments in two buildings that are two- or three-stories.
Folwell said KCG operates under the area median income program through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. With this designation, rents for one-bedroom ranged between $531 per month at 40 percent AMI and $819 per month at 60 percent.
She also addressed issues KCG had with a housing project in Madison, Wisconsin where police were called several times and included an arson investigation. She added that since then the city attorney’s office shared comments that the company has been better and they have worked with the city to rectify previous problems. Folwell said KCG’s goal is to address housing issues with people that already live in the community and she noted that no organization or individual reached out to them, but that they found Jefferson through the Thriving Iowa Community designation the city received last year.
The people that spoke against the project had concerns about taxing the police department with additional calls, the location of the project being close to the railroad tracks and in an area that constantly flooded. They also had concerns about the politics involved with GCDC and receiving certain tax credits through federal programs, which Folwell said they re-sale the credits they would receive through a syndicate to reimburse the project. There were also three letters of support received at City Hall from Wild Rose Casino and Resort in Jefferson, Greene County School District and Jefferson Telecom.
A petition that was submitted from the surrounding neighbors of the project reached the threshold that require a supermajority affirmative vote from the Council in order to pass each of the three required readings. Following the hearing, the Council voted four to one to approve the first reading, with Council member Chad Sloan voting no.
Another public hearing was then held to issue $1.7 million of general obligation bonds to purchase two sanitation trucks and resurface East Lincoln Way from Locust Street to the city cemetery. About two people spoke during the hearing and requested the Council to wait to resurface East Lincoln Way to a future date. Council member Sloan thought resurfacing East Lincoln Way would be a waste of money when there are other projects that need to be done. Following that hearing, the Council voted four to one to approve the resolution to enter into an agreement for the bonds, with Sloan voting no. Next, the Council approved setting February 27th as the public hearing date for the plans and specifications, form of contract and cost estimate for the East Lincoln Way project.
Other items the Council approved were amendments to the allocations of federal grant for the airport hangar project, the 12th pay estimate of over $1.3 million for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvement Project, hiring Jacob Kopaska as the new golf course superintendent and waiving a plat of survey for the Shriver Family to split a parcel that is outside of city limits but within the two mile radius to still require a review of the plat of survey.